LIS 2220 Archives & Records Management
Instructors: Richard J. Cox, with Joel Blanco and Bernadette
Callery
Office Number:
SIS 614
Telephone:
E-mail: rjcox111@comcast.net
Homepage:
http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/%7Ercox/
Course Schedule: Mondays, 9-11:50 AM
Office
Hours: Mondays 1:30-4:30 PM
This course introduces students to
the theoretical principles, methodologies, and practice supporting the work of
archivists, records managers, and other records professionals. The course
emphasizes the history and changing nature of records and record-keeping and
more recent manifestations of the broader concept of document. It is
essential that individuals preparing for careers as archivists and records
managers (as well as the related fields of information resources management and
knowledge management) understand what a record is, how the concept of a record
has changed or remained the same, and how systems governing the creation and
use of records have changed and are changing. Likewise, they must be able
to distinguish transactional records from other information documents and
understand the differences in and implications of administering records and
documents.
Archival and current records relate
to, but are not exclusive to, the concept of “documents” many information
professions now use to characterize their work. Documents can be interpreted as
ranging from traditional records, publications, and Web sites to personal
knowledge and corporate memory. Document management is essential to the broader
notions of information and library science, information resources management,
and knowledge management, and it is critical to understanding the nature and
scope of archives and records management.
As well, and throughout the course, there will be discussions of
emerging new document forms and the implications for archivists and records
managers.
The primary purposes of this course
are to serve as 1) an introduction to archives and records management work and
the supporting professional communities and 2) the foundation course for the
archives and records management (
The course also seeks to assist
students to place the archives and records management professions within the
context of the information professions; the disciplines of information science,
library science, historical studies, and cultural studies and the professional
and scholarly literatures that support these fields; and the early twenty-first
information age and the transition between print and digital and the tensions
between cyber-memory and public memory.
Students will be oriented to the expanding studies exploring these
topics in a manner preparing them to draw on this literature as they confront
new challenges and face difficult issues in their future professional careers.
Course Goals
Students will learn about the
differences and similarities between archivists and records managers and other
information professionals; how organizational records and personal manuscripts
share common traits and principles as records; the importance of records in the
modern information age; what records management is and what records
professionals do; the history and development of recordkeeping systems; the
place of records professionals in the information professions; how archives and
records management is broadly applied in a variety of institutional settings
(government, corporate, college and university, and non-profit); and archives
and records management as important functions in organizations and society.
This course will also prepare
students to take more advanced courses in archival and records administration
and to be able to work effectively in environments that include archival,
records, and information management programs. The course is an
introduction only, and students seriously considering careers in archival and
records management work must plan to take additional courses offered by the
School. A description of the prescribed set of courses for the archival
studies program is available at http://www.sis.pitt.edu/%7Edlis/academics/specializations/archives/archives.html.
There are courses in archival appraisal; archival representation; archival
access, advocacy, and ethics; library and archives preservation; preservation
management; digital preservation; museum archives; and photographic
archives.
There are students who take this
course who are not in the archives and records management specialization. Why would students consider doing this and
what can they benefit in taking the course?
Many librarians and other information professionals working in a variety
of institutional settings will find themselves facing archives, records, or
preservation management issues, and this course will provide a useful
background for assisting them to consider such matters. Many information professionals also will find
themselves in situations where they are working with archivists and records
managers, and this course will enable them to understand in a more informed
fashion the nature of their colleagues’’ work.
However, this course should not perceived to be a single course
preparation for archives and records management careers or all that is needed
to enable individuals to work as archivists, records managers, or preservation
administrators. It is an introductory
course, and it will, by necessity, glide over (in an introductory fashion) many
complex and difficult issues that advanced courses will deal with in more depth
later in the academic year.
Course Requirements and Grading: General.
Course requirements include the
following:
§
preparing to discuss required
reading assignments and full participation in class discussions, whether
on-campus or online
§
writing a brief (3-5 pages) paper on
“Why I Want to Be a Records Professional” (non-archives and records management
students can write their paper on why they are taking this course, describing
how it relates to their own career objectives)
§
researching and writing a paper
(15-20 pages) reviewing and evaluating the existing literature in any aspect of
the history, basic principles, or core functions of an archival or records
management program; analyzing a current, critical, or contested archival or
records management topic; or reviewing and evaluating the existing literature
in any aspect of the history, basic principles, or core functions of archives
and records management.
Class participation sometimes causes problems for
students. Class participation is critical because it enables the
Instructor to assess verbal communication and interpersonal skills (something
always asked about in references by prospective employers), as well as
enriching the learning environment of the classroom. This grade will be
dependent on the instructor's evaluation of the student's participation in
class and other opportunities to assess the student's progress (such as individual
meetings and discussions). To facilitate this evaluation, students will
be occasionally called upon to discuss specific readings during the course,
relating the content of the publications to the week's topic; every student
will have the opportunity to participate in these discussions. Online students also will be obligated to
participate in the appropriate discussion forum.
The final course grade will be based
on the major writing assignment (80 percent) and class participation (20
percent). The initial brief paper will
not be graded, although the instructor will provide feedback about the paper to
the students in a general fashion in a class session. If there are problems in writing and
presentation in the first short paper, the instructor will send comments about
such concerns.
Course Requirements and Grading: The Papers
The brief paper on how the student
became interested in pursuing an archival career is intended to provide the
instructor with additional background about individual students, as well as
enable him to assess a student’s ability to write clearly and cogently. This brief paper is not intended to be a
research paper (although students should cite any quotations or other mentions
of publications and sources). Students
can present their background in and interest in the archives and records
management field in any way they deem fit.
Students who are not in the archives and records management track can
describe why they are taking this course and their own career objectives. This short paper is due the second class
(September 10).
The major paper is intended to
enable the student to do in-depth reading and study on a single aspect of
archival administration or records management of interest to the student or
relating to their own career goals and objectives (or that has been determined
by discussion between the instructor and the student). These papers
should consist of at least four parts (although students can be creative in
their organization and presentation, although bearing in mind that these are
intended to be scholarly papers):
§
definition of the function,
principle, controversy, topic or
historical aspect and its importance;
§
review of the literature that
reflects both key points of this aspect
of archival administration and the development of archival theory on this principle or
function;
§
evaluation of the literature's
strengths and weaknesses, including any
conclusions about research and other needs in
the profession; and,
§
assessment of how that literature
would be useful to the staff of an archives or historical records program or other
information professional.
Students must show evidence of
having read thoroughly at least twenty articles and, if appropriate, several
monographs or textbooks for this paper. In reality, students will
probably need to scan the professional literature on any given topic far beyond
this quantity of publications in order to identify the most important writings,
research, and theory on the topic.
Students should plan on meeting with (or for
online students, contacting the instructor via e-mail) the instructor to
discuss their paper in order to evaluate their progress; this meeting can be
in-person or via e-mail. This paper is due on week 14 (December 3) of the
course. The instructor will not read
drafts of the paper, but he will review brief working outlines of the paper
between the initial report of the topic selected (October 1, see below) and the
date the paper is due (December 3).
Course Requirements and Grading: Doctoral Students
The primary assignment for any doctoral
students taking this course is to prepare a major publishable paper of 25-35
pages on any aspect of archives or records management approved by the
instructor. Papers completed by doctoral students should possess greater
depth in reading, understanding, methodology, and other aspects characterizing
a scholarly essay. The doctoral student should be able to explain why and
how the paper fits into a longer plan of study leading to his or her
dissertation topic, or present their plan for how they might be exploring or
experimenting with a topic as part of their larger research program (even if
the paper is not part of their dissertation work, doctoral students should plan
on preparing a publishable essay). Doctoral students must identify their
topic by the third class session (September 17), informing the instructors electronically
by posting to the digital drop box in Courseweb. The final paper is due on week
14 of the course (December 3). Doctoral
students must also participate in class discussions.
Doctoral students do not need to
prepare the short paper.
Course Requirements: Deadlines for the Major Paper
Masters students will be required to
inform the instructor of their choice of topic by the fifth class (October 1).
The final paper is due on week 14 of the course (December 3). Students
who are working at archives/historical manuscript repositories or records
management programs may select the option of writing an analysis of some aspect
of their employing institution; if the student is interested in this, he or she
must be prepared to reflect the relevant literature and must present to the
instructor a proposal for his approval, also due by the fifth class.
Papers only describing a particular institution's activities will not be
acceptable for this course; such papers must place the institution or program
into its professional and historical context, reflecting a strong foundation in
the appropriate professional literature.
Course Requirements: General Requirements for Writing Papers
All the various papers should be
well written, footnoted, and prepared according to the most recent edition (15th)
of the Chicago Manual of Style.
It is the student's responsibility to meet these requirements, representing
graduate level work. While the instructor is open to advising
students about the preparation of such papers, the student taking courses at
the graduate level is expected to be able to prepare acceptable essays
conforming to a particular style manual. However, there are a number of
issues students should keep in mind as they write their papers, including the
following:
§
Explain why you are selecting a
particular published or unpublished source: is it representative, atypical, or
what?
§
Make sure you do not make broad
assumptions without searching the literature to support such a view.
§
Do not make broad statements that
are the subject of another disciplinary areas' research; examine such
literature to support your assertions.
§
Identify the authority of the
individuals you cite in your papers; consider their background and the
perspective they may represent.
§
Make sure the paper has a logical
structure with a thesis or focus.
§
Proof for careless spelling and
grammatical mistakes.
§
Do not try to develop a paper by
stringing extensive quotations throughout the paper; instead, you should
summarize and evaluate the sources you cite. It is more important that
you reflect your thinking about the topic.
§
Make sure you have done adequate
bibliographic searches.
§
Do not rely too heavily on assigned
readings provided in the course syllabus.
§
Visit with (or an on-line student,
contact) the course instructor if you think you are missing an important area
or to discuss leads to relevant literature.
§
Distinguish between research and
opinion-based literature.
§
Make sure you note the time periods
essays and books were published; do not treat as current an essay published in
1977 unless you have substantial evidence that it represents a current
viewpoint.
§
You do not need to footnote every
reference to every publication.
§
Do not cite class notes as
authorities in your papers (the instructor knows his own viewpoints).
§
Make sure you have examined the
archival or records management literature.
All papers will need to be submitted
electronically to the digital drop box in Courseweb. On-campus students should be prepared to
submit their papers both in paper and electronically.
Course Requirements: Advice on Selecting a Paper Topic
Because many students struggle in
the identification of an appropriate topic for the major paper, the instructor
offers some additional guidance about the assignment.
The student should seek to narrow
his or her topic as much as possible. In other words, the student should
avoid selecting a broad subject discussed in hundreds of articles, numerous
books, and many special reports. Students should expect to be continually
narrowing or focusing their paper topics as the course progresses, and this
will require that students begin in-depth reading (beyond the course reading
assignments) as soon as the course starts.
Students sometimes also struggle to
determine how to prepare and present their major papers. There are
examples of published essays students could examine and use as general
guides.
Some students will write essays that
are reviews of the published literature on a particular topic; I urge students
to look at my "American Archival History: Its Development, Needs, and
Opportunities," American Archivist
46 (Winter 1983): 31-41 as an example of this kind of essay.
Other students might wish to write
essays that compare basic archival or records management functions to related
or similar functions in other fields; an example of this type of essay is my
"Researching Archival Reference as an Information Function," RQ 31 (Spring 1992): 387-97.
Finally, some students might
endeavor to write about a particular archival or records management concept; an
example of this is James O'Toole, "On the Idea of Permanence," American Archivist 52 (Winter 1989):
10-25.
Students who are committed to the
concentration in archival studies in the MLIS program should plan on (if
possible) researching an area that can be explored through the course of the
three- term program. For example, a student interested in macro-appraisal
approaches could prepare a preliminary general paper on this topic in this
course, expand the paper in the Archival Appraisal course offered in the Spring
Term by analyzing how macro-appraisal has been utilized in science, technology,
and medical archives, and explore this matter still further by considering the
success of the appraisal methodology in a particular institutional or media
format in the Summer Term. There may be the possibility for a student to
finish the program with a publishable paper based on a thorough review of the
archival and other appropriate literature and research application in a
particular area repository.
Students who are considering various
kinds of archival programs (such as museum or academic archives) or particular
aspects of archival work (such as archival descriptive standards or reference)
may want to use these papers as opportunities to explore these areas in greater
detail. For example, a former student
interested in labor and business archives prepared a detailed assessment of
labor archives. Ben Blake, a 2006 MLIS graduate in the
archives track, had his essay "The New Archives for American Labor: From
Attic to Digital Shop Floor" published in The American Archivist 70
(Spring/Summer 2007): 130-150. This paper won the 2006 Theodore Calvin
Pease Award from the Society of American Archivists for the best student paper;
Ben now works as an archival specialist in the Pictorial Collections and
Photographic Services Department of the
Course Requirements: Class Participation and Discussion
Class discussion will primarily
focus on the readings required for this course. Each week's list of readings
also includes some basic questions to guide the student in his or her thinking.
However, students will also be required to read weekly the discussions on
electronic listservs and other online discussion communities devoted to
archival and records management theory and practice.
To subscribe to the Archives
ListServ, students should go to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp
and follow the instructions for subscribing. You will receive a response that
you have been subscribed and additional information on how to post messages and
other activities.
Students should review the network
postings prior to class and be prepared to comment on them during the first
part of each class. Students should bear in mind that the Archives
ListServ is not completely representative of the American archival community;
rather it reflects archivists who have chosen to participate in its
discussions. Students should also keep in mind that postings to the
ListServ are not comparable to published research or conference presentations,
but they tend to be more like chitchat in the employees' lounge. Still,
the Archives ListServ can provide a glimpse into some of the opinions held by
and attitudes reflected by archivists in this country. It also often
features notices on recent publications, projects, and other activities that
might be of use to archives students. Students can also search the
Archives of the Archives & Archivists listserv at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
to examine past discussions.
There is also a Records Management
List. Students can subscribe to this listserv by going to http://www.arma.org/rim/listserv.cfm
and following the directions for subscribing.
As with the Archives list, the Records Management list also represents
the views of self-selected participants.
Class discussion will occur both in
the on-campus and on-line venues.
Course Requirements and Grading: Incompletes
Students will not pass the course
unless they have satisfactorily met all the requirements described in this
syllabus. Students may opt to take an incomplete provided the following
criteria are met:
1) the instructor is informed
of the student's interest or need to do this by week twelve (November 19, 2007)
of the course;
2) the incomplete assignments are
completed within four weeks of the end of the course (January 7, 2008).
Extenuating circumstances or other
valid reasons for not making up the course assignments will be considered by
the instructor, but the student will be required to provide evidence of the
severity of the circumstances preventing the student from completing the
assignments.
No incomplete grades will be given
for this course, unless there are dramatic or emergency circumstances affecting
a student's ability to meet course requirements.
Course
Students are expected to read a
number of books in order to gain a firm understanding of the nature of archival
knowledge as well its continuing evolution, especially as it relates to records
and other varieties of information resources management. Students should
use this program as an opportunity both to develop their own knowledge as well
as to build a professional library for their own future use.
Books to be read can be ordered from
the online bookstore of the student's choice, such as Amazon.com, or acquired
at a local bookstore. The instructor encourages students to purchase as many of
the texts and related publications as possible to support the development of
personal professional libraries. Students can save money on these
purchases by acquiring these texts through one of the online bookstores.
All of the books are available through the
The instructor understands that
buying all of the various publications can be expensive. This is why all readings are also available
on reserve at the SIS Library.
However, based on considerable experience, the instructor strongly
suggests that students opt to build personal professional libraries for later
use; the majority of books assigned for reading in this course are basic texts
students will want to consult for later courses and in their own professional
careers.
Here are the required books:
James M. O'Toole and Richard J. Cox,
Understanding Archives and Manuscripts,
2nd ed. (
Randall C. Jimerson, ed. American Archival Studies:
Michael Kurtz, Managing Archival and Manuscript Repositories (
Frank Boles, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts (
Mary Jo Pugh, Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts (
Kathleen Roe, Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts (
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, A Prisoner in the Garden (
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information (
Elizabeth Shepherd and Geoffrey Yeo,
Managing Records: A Handbook of
Principles and Practice (
JoAnne Yates, Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American
Management (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
James R. Beniger, The Control Revolution: Technological and
Economic Origins of the Information Society (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1986).
Nicholas G.
Carr. Does IT Matter? Information
Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage (
Besides these
publications students taking this course might also want to peruse past
postings and stay current with new postings of the instructor’s “Reading
Archives” blog. You can find this blog
at http://readingarchives.blogspot.com/.
Its purpose is stated as follows:
With this blog, I am planning to offer, as regularly as possible, critical observations on the scholarly and popular literature analyzing the nature of archives or contributing to our understanding of archives in society. I am not planning to comment on basic practice manuals, technical guides, or best practice reports; these I will continue to describe in my monthly column published in the Records & Information Management Report, a technical report I edit and that is published by M.E. Sharpe. I hope this blog will be of assistance to anyone, especially faculty and graduate students, interested in understanding archives and their importance to society. I hope readers will comment on the postings, suggesting different perspectives or reflecting on other publications related to the specific topic or the broader importance of archives in society. I plan on making postings, from time to time, reflecting my own research and writing or recommending areas and topics that seem ripe for new research. As part of this, I intend to comment occasionally on the work that my own doctoral students are engaged in. The instructor will discuss some of the blog postings as they are relevant to the course.
Every effort will be made to
introduce students to the seminal writings in the archives and records
management fields. The various texts
required for this course discuss some of these writings. Students should be conversant with the
bibliographic essay in James M. O'Toole and Richard J. Cox, Understanding Archives and Manuscripts, 2nd ed. (
Course Evaluation
Students will have an opportunity
near the end of the course to complete a questionnaire administered by the
University of Pittsburgh Office of Measurement and Evaluation; there will be a
special evaluation form made available to online students. This
questionnaire is confidential and anonymous and the instructor does not receive
the results until after the course is over and grades have been
submitted. The instructor considers seriously the students’ evaluation of
the course for future offerings of the course.
During the last scheduled class session, the instructor will provide an
opportunity for open discussion about the course.
Students with Disabilities
If you have a disability for which
you are requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both the
instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 216 William
Pitt
THE COURSE
Week One
Orientation to the Course; Review of
Course Requirements; The Purposes and Objectives of Archives and Records
Management; The Nature of Archival and Records Management Programs
Students, when they have a chance,
should visit and peruse the “Repositories of Primary Sources,” a site “listing . . . over 5000
websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical
photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar,” at http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html.
There is no class on
Week Two
The Power of Records in Society
Students should come prepared to discuss how records and
recordkeeping systems impact their daily lives. Each student should have
a list of the kinds of records that are created relating to their personal and
professional lives.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation, A Prisoner in the Garden (
The brief paper, “Why I Want to Be a Records
Professional,” is due on week two of the course. The paper should be handed in at the class
session and sent to the instructor by posting electronically to the digital
drop box in Courseweb.
.
Week Three